another ofcom balls up

[bobthebuilder]

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said: "Consumers are benefiting from greater competition and lower prices.

"But for consumers to get an all-round fair deal they need to know the full costs of the services they are buying."

The proposed charge has met with fierce opposition across the region by those who believe it is unfair.

what competition do we get then dicky lol

[Robo]

This I take it is comments on an article in the Hull Daily Mail today http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Ofcom-rules-allow-KC-s-1-plan/article-430932-detail/article.html
If so I agree that this guy from Ofcom is totally clueless about Krapoo and it's workings ( or not ).

[stormy]

hehehe yeh, is that Ofcom guy on crack? There is no competition here. This is half the problem, the idiots at Ofcom have no clue what's going on, or they simply don't give a shit.

[Sean]

I emailed "Ed Richards" asking him to expand on those words about more competition and lower prices, considering in the last few years prices have gone up and there is no competition.  I also asked how we could have faith in Ofcom if he doesn't himself understand the situation.

His PA responded to say she had passed it on, and then I got a response from somebody else at Ofcom 5 days later.  As usual, they re-stated the situation and answered neither of the questions I asked.

Thank you for your email to Ofcom regarding the services available to consumers within the Kingston Communications area, and your feeling that the situation remains uncompetitive. I have been asked to respond.         
 
It may be helpful if I explain the Hull Kingston situation in full. I can confirm that there have never been any restrictions on communications providers, other than BT, operating in the Kingston area, however very few providers have chosen to offer direct services.
 
Following a public consultation undertaken in 1998 by the previous telecoms regulator the Office of Telecommunications, the restriction on BT to operate systems in the Hull area was removed. This was subject to safeguards to prevent anti-competitive behaviour. However, since the Communications Act of 2003 BT is no longer required to apply to the Department of Trade and Industry before it can operate in the Hull area.
 
The European Union Regulation on local loop unbundling came into force on 2 January 2001. It requires those telecoms operators who have been designated as having significant market power (in the UK this is BT and Kingston) make their local networks (the copper cables that run from customers premises to the telephone exchange) available to other telecoms companies known as Local Loop Unbundling Operators (LLUOs).
 
LLUOs are able to upgrade individual, unbundled lines to offer services such as always on high speed Internet access, direct to the customer. The intention of this is to increase competition in the market for high speed Internet (broadband) services.  Again though it is a commercial decision for operators as to where and when they decide to offer unbundled local loops and is not an area that Ofcom has control over.  The roll out of LLU is dependent on operators placing orders for co-location facilities with Kingston Communications. Ofcom has put in place the regulatory framework in which LLU can take place and operators are now able to order unbundled loops from any exchange in the UK. 
 
Although we take on broad the points that you have raised regarding the Hull/Kingston market, it is likely that many providers consider that the additional expense involved in entering the market as expensive and therefore unattractive.  Ofcom has endeavoured to encourage the development of competition in the Hull area. However, Ofcom has no power to compel other communication providers to offer services in Hull.
 
I trust that the above has helped to clarify Ofcom’s position. Please be assured that a full record of your concerns has been made.   

[Awibble]

Email them back and ask them to answer your question. If they fail again, mail the entire correspondance off to as many newspapers as you can. When they see what a sham Ofcom is, it'll be all over the papers.

[Halloway]

I think you would be wasting your time with Ofcom. Its powers are clearly defined and they do not include forcing companies with significant market power to admit competition, nor, indeed, forcing other companies to provide a service in this area (which would tackle the problem from a different direction.)

This is something which needs to be pursued with Government and specifically Parliament. I am not aware that any of the Hull MPs or Graham Stuart have ever commented on the situation. I think it's time that they were tackled on this. I think Graham Stuart (being a back-bencher) would be most likely to raise a question in Parliament if enough of us mailed him.

[stormy]

Good luck with getting the government to do anything about it. Its interesting that from that response they state BT could if they wanted to operate in Hull but like every other company they don't want to waste the resources.

[Halloway]

Well clearly banging away at Ofcom has achieved sweet FA. If you all want to carry on banging your heads against that brick wall then don't let me dissuade you.

Thanks for the negative karma, by the way.

[richardmyers]

Double pronged attack maybe? Start hitting up the Government, at the same time continue down the Ofcom non-route to show that we're all going down the correct channels?

[Awibble]

Well clearly banging away at Ofcom has achieved sweet FA. If you all want to carry on banging your heads against that brick wall then don't let me dissuade you.

Thanks for the negative karma, by the way.

With a defeatist attitude like that are you surprised you got negative karma? If you want to lie down and take what Kcom is giving, without even putting up mention of a fight, then please, just leave these boards.

[Sean]

I have never complained to Ofcom it's a waste of time because they have one response.

I complained about his words and emailed him personally, as what he said was untrue.  Making competition available but having none is not more competition.  And the lower prices is not true either.

I did immediately respond asking them to answer the question I asked, but have received nothing back.

[stormy]

Let us know if you do get a response please Sean.

[Sean]

Ok, now this sounds like bad journalism instead.  (Yes, between those adverts, the Hull Daily mail sometimes has badly spelled, poor grammatical, and infactual news!)

Thank you for your further email to Ofcom regarding Kingston Communications and the comments made by Ed Richards in relation to them.
 
I can confirm that the comments were taken from a news release in February 2008 which was not specific to the situation with Kingston Communications. Details can be located at:   http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2008/02/nr_20080228.
 
In our decisions with the journalist it was explained that we were in conversation with Kingston Communications about social access packages. Again details can be located at:  http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/addcharges/addcharges.pdf.(page 6 of the condoc).
 
We also highlighted page 83 which gives a comparison of charges for itemised billing made by providers across the UK.
 
I trust that the above information clarifies Ofcom position.